Modi gifts ‘Melody’ toffees to Meloni during Rome meeting
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ROME – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared a light-hearted moment at Rome’s iconic Colosseum before holding discussions aimed at boosting trade and strengthening bilateral ties between the two countries. A video shared by Meloni on social media showed the two leaders taking selfies while overlooking the Italian capital. Thank you for the gift pic.twitter.com/7e Pxb Jw Pb A — Giorgia Meloni (@Giorgia Meloni) May 20, 2026 Giorgia Meloni also thanked Modi for bringing a packet of “Melody” candies during his visit, with both leaders joking about the similarity between the candy’s name and Meloni’s own name. Modi arrived in Rome on Tuesday, marking the first bilateral visit by an Indian prime minister to Italy in 26 years. The visit came at the conclusion of his wider European tour. He had earlier travelled to Italy for the G20 Summit in 2021 and the G7 Summit in 2024. In a joint article published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Modi and Meloni expressed their commitment to expanding economic cooperation and raising bilateral trade to more than 20 billion euros by 2029. They highlighted defence, aerospace, automobile components, clean energy technologies and textiles as key areas for future collaboration. The two leaders stated that Italy’s expertise in manufacturing and design, combined with India’s growing economy, engineering capabilities and innovation-driven ecosystem, could create strong economic opportunities for both nations. According to figures from the Indian Embassy in Italy, trade between the two countries stood at 14.25 billion euros last year. Later in the day, Modi and Meloni were scheduled to hold formal bilateral talks at Villa Pamphili, a historic 17th-century villa located west of central Rome. Modi also announced plans to visit the Rome headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organization, saying the visit would reaffirm India’s support for multilateral cooperation and global food secur